Hello from San Jose CA

[Keong Kam]

Hello everyone-

My name is Keong from San Jose, CA and I am a new member. Wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

I am originally from midwest (grew up in  KS and went to school in MO) and been living in San Jose for ~5yrs working as an engineer.

Here is my quick background story:

My wife and I bought a 1br condo in San Jose about 3 yrs ago. We lived in it for a little over a year and turned it into a rental property after my daughter was born. We bought a 2br condo in the same complex and I've been self managing the first condo since then... This is my first experience with rental property. It's been a valuable experience for me to actually experience managing tenants and property. Although, it's really not making any cash flow pretty much making even after all expenses paid... At first, my thought was to hold on to this one forever as a backup retirement investment... however the home value went from 380K to 520K now - hence I am debating whether to sell now or hold on forever...

As most probably know, Bay area housing prices are absolutely crazy, I am looking out of state to start investing more as I have some more liquid assets available now. I am looking into KS and MO where I am from , more specifically KC and surrounding suburb area. I will definitely need many people's guidance in the near future as a new out-of-state investor. Hope to network and learn a lot from everyone!

In addition to my intro, I have a few questions:

1. what is the best way to go about estimating the vacancy rate in a certain area? I know craigslist,hotpads, etc can show the available rentals for the rental estimation, but I am curious how to spot areas that might have significantly more vacancies than others... 

2. If anyone knows a good property management company covering KC surrounding area, please let me know. 

3. out of state investors: when do you absolutely need to fly out and visit the property? I have a family member who I trust that can visit and look at the property for me but in general, how often/ when do you guys visit your property before and shortly after closing the deal? I am thinking if the property needs some minor work like doing carpet and repaint, etc, do you guys usually fly out to get a contractor in and again after the work is done to go back and check? Is this something that PMs can cover?

Sorry for the long post and many questions. Too excited!

Thank you!!

[Shawn Ackerman]

@Keong Kam I can speak to your third question.  When I begin investing OOS I spent over a year in the market on and offline researching, building relationships and ultimately a team.  Today, after my portfolio has been built I travel to the market once per quarter or when closing on a multi-property deal.  I'd suggest you leverage someone in your market of choice, build a relationship wherein there is some sort of compensation for boots on the ground work.  It is not practical to fly out after each project and it's completely unnecessary when the right team members are in place. Hope this helps.  Best of luck to you.